


Someone Else's Future

by Leonawriter



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 05:44:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13357749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: "No one can change the past," he remembered Aerith saying, sadly as she looked into the relative distance of the lifestream, before he'd left. "Even if you think you do, it's just someone else's future. But that doesn't mean it's any less important."Zack has the opportunity to change something, no matter how big or small, and Aerith's words stick by him every moment of the way.





	Someone Else's Future

_"No one can change the past,"_ he remembered Aerith saying, sadly as she looked into the relative distance of the lifestream, before he'd left.  _"Even if you think you do, it's just someone else's future. But that doesn't mean it's any less important."_

And then she'd looked back at him, back into his eyes, smiled coyly, and told him  _Don't go falling for any strange girls while you're gone!_

She'd hugged him, then - and he'd closed his eyes, focusing all of his senses on the way that she'd felt, not even noticing how he and the world around him had been fading-

Hadn't, until just now, waking up in his fifteen year old body, the alarm clock on his bedside table blinking at him, telling him that it was not quite six am.

The rest of the morning was a lot like a waking dream, mixed in with bits of nightmare - and he should know, having spent the better part of four years in mako, at Hojo's leisure.

Even so, he doesn't  _really_ know when he is, what the date is, what's  _really going on,_ until someone walks straight into him on the SOLDIER floor, clearly not looking where they're going. 

He nearly goes hurtling toward the floor, but catches himself just in time with reflexes he's relieved to realise were there even back then - now, he supposes. Nearly shouts for whoever it'd been to watch themself, because  _other people_ used these halls as well.

He's struck dumb and doesn't say or do any of it when he notices just who it had been, though. 

Red hair, read coat, red sword. 

_Genesis_. 

He'd gone far enough back that Genesis hadn't defected yet. Hadn't done  _any_ of it. No Copies. No wing-

And yet, the First was muttering to himself, it looked like he was simmering with anger, although not quite the rage that Zack had seen him with in his personal past. Most importantly, though... was that he was worrying at his shoulder, one hand reaching over to touch it every so often and he'd wince, irritated.

Zack paused to wonder first, when he'd become such an expert on Genesis-isms (he admitted it was probably partly because of the number of times he'd confronted the guy and his Copies, but by now mostly because of the number of stories Angeal had told him and Aerith while they were watching the living) and second, what the hell he thought he was about to do. Because he was moving  _toward_ the Crimson Commander, soon to be deserter, and leader of a war against Shinra-

But wasn't that what he'd done this for? He'd told Aerith he wanted to save people, to actually be worth the hero worship he knew that his Cloud looked at him with. 

Everyone had always put things on his shoulders before, but this time he wasn't going to shirk the duties and responsibilities, even if they didn't even know they'd put them there, this time.

"Genesis? ...Sir?"

Damn, he'd gotten into the habit of not referring to anyone by rank. That was something he'd have to fix, if he didn't want to stay a Second forever. Being dead didn't help maintain respect for hierarchy, he supposed. Though, not that it counted when Shinra was the reason he'd died, and hardly even  _existed_ in the time he'd left behind.

Genesis stopped and turned to face him however, hand halfway back to his shoulder, eyes flashing with annoyance.

"Well?"

Perhaps if he'd actually been fifteen, Zack might've flinched a bit himself under that glare. He'd seen worse, though, and it was harder to  _pretend_ he was intimidated. So he didn't bother.

"You looked like something was bothering you," he said, as carefully as he could, knowing that if he messed this up, then  _everything_ could go wrong. Memories of asking Sephiroth whether the mako monsters inside the tanks meant that  _they_ were somehow less human flashed in his mind, and he forced himself to return to the present.  _Focus_ , Angeal's voice said, and his breath caught when he realised that this meant that he'd be able to meet Angeal again - a  _living_ Angeal. Who was technically, if you went by how long they'd lived and not what they looked like. "I know someone - in the city. They're really great at healing, and I promised I'd let them practice on someone other than me for a change."

The lie came easily enough, even though he hated it. Not because he thought Aerith would say  _no_ , but because sometimes asking forgiveness was easier than asking for permission, and if he didn't ask  _now-_

Genesis looked at him as though he'd grown a second head, and walked past him.

Zack sighed, and glanced back down the hall - he could just about see Angeal coming around the corner, and if it was  _today_ , then that would mean  _Sephiroth_ would be with him.

There'd be time for that tomorrow. Now, most importantly, he had something else to do, someone else to see.

...

"I did wonder why the Planet was so excited this morning. It's been saying someone was coming all day!"

Aerith looked... different. Although considering that they hadn't met from him falling through the roof of her church into her beloved flowers the time, and he'd come to her a  _little_ earlier, he was just happy that she hadn't shoo'd him out of the church, or gotten scared of some random SOLDIER suddenly appearing. 

He should have known better, though. Aerith always had known things, even before he'd understood  _why_ , once they were both already dead.

"I hope it's only been saying good things," he said, and she giggled, both of them relaxing as she did. 

"Mostly," she agreed. "It's also been saying to watch out for strange men who go about falling on flowers - you... wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"I might've done," he admitted, smiling easily at the banter. "Once. A while ago. It wasn't on purpose, though. I crashed through the roof, and an angel leaned over me and started saying,  _hello! -_ that woke me right up."

It was almost like talking with  _his_ Aerith, which of course it was, because they were the same person. The one he was talking to right now had just... not been through so much. 

Not... died.

Which reminded him of why he was here, and the smile faded somewhat from his face.

"Look, I... I know you don't know me that well, we've only just met, but... I really need to ask a favour of you. Is that okay?"

"Well," she said, tilting her head and considering him slightly more seriously, "that'd have to depend on the favour."

Belatedly, he remembered something he'd learned only later on - that Tseng hadn't just been hanging out by the church because of him, but because he'd been watching  _Aerith_. Because of who she was.  _What_ she was.

"There's someone I want to help," he said, remembering how he'd said that exact same thing in the past to her except over Angeal, instead. "But I don't know how. He's been injured, and something worse is wrong with him, and if he doesn't get help  _soon_ then - a lot of bad things are gonna happen. And I  _can't let_ _them_." He looked back up into her eyes, those patient green eyes, and sighed. "He's a SOLDIER. Like... me, actually. But if he agrees to let us help, and I don't know if he  _will_ , I'll ask him to come here."

Aerith was quiet for a while, and he wished all the more that he had the time to  _give_ her more time.

_I've got twenty-three tiny wishes, but you probably won't remember them all..._

They'd never had that time they'd wanted so badly before meeting again in the lifestream, and a lump formed in Zack's throat.

"All right," she said, eventually. "I'll try, at least. But in return, I want to know who it is that the Planet seems to like so much."

"How about we make it one date," he found himself saying before he could stop himself.

Aerith, still in her white and blue sundress and sandals, pushed his shoulder, lightly. He pretended it was powerful enough to push him back a pace anyway though, just to see her smile.

"You know... for a SOLDIER, you aren't actually as intimidating as I expected."

Back when he'd actually been fifteen the first go around, he might have found that offensive, wondering at how he'd managed to get into SOLDIER, he was being mentored by one of the legendary Firsts, wasn't he?

But this was Aerith, and the first time this had come up for  _him_ , she'd talked about how SOLDIERs were scary, with how they liked to fight so much. 'Not intimidating' from Aerith was a good thing, would  _always_ be a good thing.

...

Genesis cornered him three days later, in the stairwell, looking  _awful_. 

Zack had a point of reference for 'Genesis looking awful' too, and ignoring the obvious physical signs of degradation, the man's eyes were dark like he hadn't slept, and his hair wasn't quite the state of perfection he'd become accustomed to seeing it at. The overall state of him seemed to point directly to  _stressed_ , and there was only one reason there could be for that-

The part of Zack that had survived four years in a mako tube and seen the scientist changed and pleading for his life had a dark wish to take his sword into Hollander's office there and then. It was only remembering Aerith, and that he couldn't do anything that'd get him made into a fugitive  _again_ , that stopped him. 

That, and the fact that Genesis had actually  _remembered_ what he'd said.

Was  _agreeing_ to let Zack lead him down into the slums of Sector Five, just on the off-chance that  _someone_ might be able to do something, that Hollander might be  _lying_.

He'd even said as much, or near enough without spilling everything. It'd been obvious, to someone who'd seen degradation in all its forms, heard Hollander talking about it, and about how he was the  _only_ one capable of curing it.

But Zack had offered another option.

"The day after tomorrow," he said. "I'll tell her you're coming."

...

If he hadn't known what Genesis' confident looked like, hadn't seen him in such a frazzled state before, he wouldn't have thought the man was more than just in a bad mood, when they went.

Likewise, if he didn't know  _Aerith_ better, he'd have wondered at how confident  _she_ was being, in the presence of someone like Genesis.

Though by the looks she started giving him once they were all there together, he probably wasn't doing much better at hiding his nerves.

_It's almost as though I can hear the Planet's voice, when you're close by,_ she'd said just the previous day.  _That isn't normal, you know. Normal is just... impressions. Because Planets don't talk like people do._

Their eyes met now, and she nodded, looking far more like she had some of that same confidence that he knew she'd grow into.

"I'll do what I can," she said, not to him now but to Genesis, who'd started to pace around looking unimpressed. Her voice made him stop, though, and look back at her. "I can't say I'll be able to fix _everything_ , but... all I can do is try, just like I promised."

...

A few days later, despite Genesis' complaints that whatever Aerith had tried clearly couldn't have worked, Hollander could be seen looking alternately distressed and fascinated by something.

It wasn't the end of anything by far, but... maybe it could be a better  _beginning_.

After making sure to leave himself a note, and making sure that Aerith's number was stored in his phone, Zack closed his eyes, focusing on the way things were, the way they  _could_ be-

_I'd like to spend more time with you._

...

Zack woke up to his alarm clock saying that it wasn't quite six am, and his phone resting on a piece of paper he didn't remember putting down there the night before.

_Sorry, I think I stole a bit of your time,_ he read, realising with a jolt that it was his own handwriting - a bit different, but definitely his.  _But I really hope this means you've got way more time then I got, in the end. Not that I'm unhappy, though! You can change just one thing, she said. You'll like her. I know you will._

_Oh, and don't be surprised if Angeal's friends are extra friendly, okay? Don't be a stranger._

He feels a shiver run down his spine after he's read it, and then gone over it again. There's a weight to the words - if he had any idea what they might've been going on about, he might say he'd gotten a sudden talent for sleep-writing - that he doesn't like.

He picks up his phone again, and it's still highlighted on a message from someone whose name he doesn't recognise. A girl's name though, he thinks.

_What do you think of meeting up later today? It can be our two week anniversary of having met,_ the message reads.  _You still owe me that date you promised._


End file.
